The Secret Life Of Bees, is a novel about a young girl named Lily who lives with her father and her black nanny / housekeeper. The main conflict is Lily's struggle to find the truth about her dead mother and her search for identity in a time or racial segregation.
Lily and her father, T. Ray do not have a very good relationship. She is afraid of him and he does not treat her well because he blames her for her mother's death. Unfortunately Lily does not know a lot about what happened and decides to search for the truth. Lily has a box of her mother's things that she keeps under her bed. In that box she has a picture of a black Virgin Mary from a honey jar and a pair of white gloves. On the back on the label from the honey jar written in pencil is Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily decides that if she wants to find out the truth about her mother she is going to have to do it herself and leaves T. Ray. Lily convinces Rosealeen to run away to Tiburon, South Carolina with her.
When she arrives in Tiburon she finds the family who makes the honey with the picture of the black Virgin Mary. She arrives at the home of the Boatwright sisters, April, May, June and August. Lily invents a story telling the Boatwright sisters her parents are both dead and she is on her way to her aunts house in Richmond Virginia. .
August invites Lily and Rosaleen to stay with them for as long as they need to stay. August tells them both that they can help with the honey business. Lily and Rosaleen are happy with the Boatwright sisters. The Boatwright sisters have many friends in Tiburon and they include Lily and Rosaleen in all of their social gatherings. The Boatwright sisters belong to a group of women called the Daughters of Mary. The Daughters of Mary hold a type of religious ceremony using a statue in the likeness of the black Virgin Mary from the honey jar label. The statue has a red heart painted on her chest.
